We have Mya!

So on Thursday, October 27th, surrounded by family and friends we received Mya Rose into our family. It was a very emotional but much anticipated event as you all can imagine.

In the days leading up to the event, there was much last minute planning and prepping and shopping. We were and continue to be showered by family and friends with gifts, money, clothes, and baby items to support and welcome our pink addition. It was overwhelming. We were baffled at the level of provision. There just aren't words to describe our gratitude and affection and thankfulness. So if that's you and you're reading this.....heartfelt thanks and hugs.

We have been inundated with emails, cards, calls, gifts, text messages. We've loved them all.

Mya is a very sweet and very good baby. She eats every four hours which means she sleeps most of the night. She usually only wakes once! Yay! Much much much thanks to the precious family that took care of her. They made a precious photo album including pics of them with her. It was so precious to see her first few days and how she grew the 3 weeks they had her. They are a precious family and we hope to keep in touch.

I'll answer some questions that I've been asked:

1.) How much did it cost? a)The final cost is not complete. We still have more legal fees coming our way. b) we are keeping the final digits to ourselves. I will say that the estimate of $20-30K is a good estimate. But God is faithful and blew open the floodgates of blessing and we adopted debt free. Quite the accomplishment considering when we began the process 9 months ago the $250 application fee was a step of faith. :-)

2)Is she legally yours? No. Currently we are technically babysitting. Lifeline actually has legal decision making for Mya. We would take her to the doctor and make decisions for like minor colds and such but all other decisions including leaving the state, etc we would call Lifeline. We have a tentative legal finalization date scheduled for December 17. Which as of tonight I realized was a Saturday. Hmm......but that's what they said so, we'll see. The state of GA is still messing around with the putative father rights. But God has been faithful and we don't feel nervous. But we'd like to have it final a) because she's ours and we'd fight to the death for her(legally) and b) we'd get a nice tax write off this year! :)

3) Have you bonded with her? Yes! For me it really happened in the midnight feeding. On the day we got her, it felt like so surreal. Like we were temporarily taking care of someone elses baby. But that night she felt like mine. And in the days to follow she is looking more and more like Ava as a baby. She fits right in with us. For Paul, it happened a couple of days later. Since I take her more of the nights and hold her more, it took a little longer for him but he says he feels like she is ours. He loves her and takes care of her so sweetly. She adores sleeping on his chest just like Ava did!

4) How is Ava doing? She's been great! She loves Mya, takes care of her, alerts us of spit ups and tears, and falling out passy's. She loves holding her, helping with diaper changes, and wants to do everything. The care taking began on the ride home from the agency as Mya was crying and Ava began to sing to her a sweet lullaby. Mya listened and is enamored with Ava talking to her. She occasionally acts out wanting attention from mommay and daddy simultaneously. That has tapered off a good bit though. She tells everyone she knows about Mya and how she is big sister. She's very proud of Mya and her big sister status.

I'll answer more later, but now, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........zzzzzzzzzzz.

Just know that we are totally in love. She is doing great.

We've nicknamed her Pudding. Ava thinks it's cute and if we call her Mya, she reminds us her nickname is Puddin'. Nicknames are super important to us as we all have them.